The campaign seeks protection of the right of citizens for a clean environment, that is: clean air, clean water, clean and safe food, and fully functioning ecosystems that provide services to nature and humans. Implicit in these goals is protection from climate change impacts.

Municipalities and cities are endorsing environmental rights for citizens and signing onto the campaign. Manitoba is the first province to take this step. Included in Manitoba's intention are a code of practice to enforce these environmental rights, with independent oversight to review government department policies and actions.

The Manitoba government posted a set of questions, and requested comments from Manitobans about potential content for the Manitoba Environmental Bill of Rights. No public registry is in place for the public review. Draft text is not yet available.

EcoJustice Canada, a charitable group of environmental lawyers, released its advice for the contents of the future Manitoba Bill of Environmental Rights. Manitoba Wildlands endorsed the EcoJustice advice in its comments, while commenting that some of the comparisons to the Ontario EBR system do not apply in Manitoba.

To date there is no Bill in the Legislature, though a session of the Manitoba Legislature begins February 28, 2016. If the Environmental Bill of Rights is tabled it could go to committee, including for public presentations, before the session ends. The Manitoba provincial election is dated April 19, 2016.

The Council of Canadians Regina chapter is celebrating Regina becoming a Blue Dot community.

Blue Dot Regina reports, "Regina City Council unanimously passed the Regina Blue Dot Movement's municipal declaration for the the Right to a Healthy Environment. This declaration reaffirm's the City of Regina's commitment to protecting and fulfilling the #R2HE for its citizens and will encourage other levels of government to also take action on environmental rights. Thank you to the volunteers, supporters, and the City of Regina administration and council for your diligent work and belief that all Canadians should have equal access to clean air, water, and food. Let's continue until every Canadian has the guaranteed right to live in a healthy and safe environment."

As noted on the Blue Dot campaign's website, "Across the country, Canadians believe in our inherent right to a healthy environment – clean water, fresh air, healthy food and a say in decisions that affect us. This growing movement of Canadians calls upon their local communities to pass municipal declarations respecting people’s right to live in a healthy environment."

It adds, "With so many communities calling for action from all levels of government, the next step is to have our provinces follow suit and pass environmental bills of rights. When seven out of 10 provinces representing more than 50 per cent of the Canadian population have recognized our right to a healthy environment we turn toward the ultimate goal: amending the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Recognition in the Charter is the final step in protecting the right to clean air, fresh water and healthy food for all Canadians."

This has been a long struggle. In January 2016, Regina City Council failed to support the Blue Dot resolution.

At that time, Regina Leader Post columnist Greg Fingas commented, "Unlike corporate rights agreements, the Blue Dot Declaration doesn’t provide any mechanism to challenge a violation of the right to clear air, water or food. So there’s no plausible argument to be made that it would somehow tie the city’s hands in weighing competing priorities. [It simply signals that a municipality] intends to at least recognize the importance of environmental considerations and evaluate the effect its policies might have on that crucial issue. And more than a hundred Canadian municipalities have been willing to go that far to date. Somehow, even that minimal level of recognition and reporting was seen as unacceptable by a majority of Regina’s city council."

In February 2015, our Hamilton chapter supported the successful campaign for Hamilton to become a Blue Dot community and in June 2015 our Sudbury chapter expressed support for Sudbury becoming a Blue Dot community as a way to protect Ramsey Lake from the impact of the building of the Keast Drive 54 single-family home, 93 condominium subdivision. Ramsey Lake is a downtown lake historically stressed by smelter emissions from mining in the area, was considered dead for many years before a major reclamation effort, and now provides 40 per cent of the city's drinking water.

The Council of Canadians congratulates all involved in helping Regina to become a Blue Dot community.

For information on our sister campaign - the Blue Communities Project - which calls on municipalities (both in Canada and around the world) to recognize the human right to water (which can include watershed protection), promote publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services, and ban the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events, please click here: [ http://canadians.org/bluecommunities ]

The Council of Canadians Northumberland chapter will be launching a Blue Dot initiative campaign on March 22.

Chapter activist Patrica Daly writes in Northumberland Today, "In recognition of World Water Day on March 22, the Northumberland Chapter of the Council of Canadians will be holding a meeting for members, supporters and all other interested volunteers to launch the Blue Dot initiative in Northumberland County. The meeting will be held at Go-Green-Together, 739 D’ Arcy St. in Cobourg at 7 p.m."

As noted on the Blue Dot campaign's website [ http://bluedot.ca/ ], "Across the country, Canadians believe in our inherent right to a healthy environment – clean water, fresh air, healthy food and a say in decisions that affect us. This growing movement of Canadians calls upon their local communities to pass municipal declarations respecting people’s right to live in a healthy environment."

It adds, "With so many communities calling for action from all levels of government, the next step is to have our provinces follow suit and pass environmental bills of rights. When seven out of 10 provinces representing more than 50 per cent of the Canadian population have recognized our right to a healthy environment we turn toward the ultimate goal: amending the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Recognition in the Charter is the final step in protecting the right to clean air, fresh water and healthy food for all Canadians."

Daly highlights, "The right to a healthy environment is the simple yet powerful idea that all Canadians deserve to breathe fresh air, drink clean water, eat safe food and enjoy a stable climate."

And Daly notes, "Nationwide 149 municipalities have signed on and in Ontario alone 52 municipalities have responded (35% of national number & 2/3 of Ontario’s population based on 2014 census). With so many communities calling for action from all levels of government, the next step is to have our federal government follow suit and pass an environmental bills of rights."

On February 27, our Regina celebrated the City of Regina unanimously passing a Blue Dot municipal declaration. In February 2015, our Hamilton chapter supported the successful campaign for Hamilton to become a Blue Dot community.

And in June 2015 our Sudbury chapter expressed support for Sudbury becoming a Blue Dot community as a way to protect Ramsey Lake -- a downtown lake historically stressed by smelter emissions from mining in the area -- from the impact of the building of the Keast Drive 54 single-family home, 93 condominium subdivision.

Good luck to the Northumberland chapter and allies with this campaign!

The Council of Canadians Northumberland chapter is celebrating that the Town of Cobourg's Committee of the Whole has recommended that staff develop a municipal declaration recognizing the right to clean water, fresh air and healthy food.

As explained on the Town's website, "The Town of Cobourg Council meets in Committee of the Whole to discuss the items in the agenda. At this meeting, they discuss the items on the agenda and pass a motion (which lays out the action to be taken on the matter). The next meeting is a Regular Council meeting where the decisions of Council are formalized by Resolutions or By-laws."

The Northumberland News reports, "The Town of Cobourg could be the first municipality in Northumberland County to issue a declaration that supports its citizens’ right to a healthy environment. During a committee of the whole meeting on May 8, Bruce Bellaire and Tom Shea spoke on behalf of the Council of Canadians to outline the Blue Dot movement [ http://bluedot.ca/ ], which is a project of the David Suzuki Foundation and sponsors."

The article highlights, "Bellaire asked the Town of Cobourg to approve the motion to have staff create a Cobourg-specific municipal declaration in support of the movement, which was ultimately passed by council that night."

Bellaire says, “This year, the local chapter of the Council of Canadians has made it their key project to run a Blue Dot Northumberland campaign and to go to all seven of the municipalities in the county to ask for a municipal declaration."

He adds, "The Council of Canadians in particular has gotten behind this because of some of the water issues in Northumberland, and the drought last year pointed out that clean water is not something that is always a given."

As noted on the Blue Dot campaign's website, "Across the country, Canadians believe in our inherent right to a healthy environment – clean water, fresh air, healthy food and a say in decisions that affect us. This growing movement of Canadians calls upon their local communities to pass municipal declarations respecting people’s right to live in a healthy environment."

It adds, "With so many communities calling for action from all levels of government, the next step is to have our provinces follow suit and pass environmental bills of rights. When seven out of 10 provinces representing more than 50 per cent of the Canadian population have recognized our right to a healthy environment we turn toward the ultimate goal: amending the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

In February 2015, our Hamilton chapter supported the successful campaign for Hamilton to become a Blue Dot community. In June 2015 our Sudbury chapter expressed support for Sudbury becoming a Blue Dot community as a way to protect Ramsey Lake -- a downtown lake historically stressed by smelter emissions from mining in the area -- from the impact of a proposed subdivision. And in February of this year our Regina chapter celebrated the City of Regina unanimously passing a Blue Dot municipal declaration.